The Story Behind Kacey Musgraves’s Powerful (and Fashionable) New Film, Star-Crossed
Kacey Musgraves isn’t afraid to get real. The superstar singer-songwriter’s music has always let listeners into her inner world, but her latest album, Star-Crossed, goes further. Penned while Musgraves was in the middle of a divorce, its exploration of love, grief, and self-discovery is boldly confessional.
In 15 tracks, Musgraves pours her heart out by tackling the realities of relationships, celebrating both the thrill and vulnerability of romance. Star-Crossed is Musgraves’s most ambitious project to date, existing as both a genre-bending album and an accompanying film, directed by Bardia Zeinali. Filled with saturated color, a cast of misfits, and plenty of runway fashion styled by Erica Cloud, the surreal visuals add another layer to the experience.
Released Friday exclusively on Paramount+, the project is unlike anything undertaken by a country artist, a genre where folksy realism is a selling point. For Musgraves, creating a tale that felt authentic was more important than adhering to conventions. “It’s not just a one-off music video. I felt that this story, this chapter of my life, deserved the right depiction,” she shared via Zoom from Los Angeles. “Music videos are great, but you digest them and move on. This is something completely different. I’ve never been able to devote this much creative space to the visual aspect of a project before, and it’s been a blessing to convey my story in this form. When we began, I was in an intense place of healing, and I knew it would take a special person to bring this to fruition visually.”
Musgraves met Zeinali on a Vogue video shoot a year earlier, and he proved to be the perfect collaborator. Expert at creating music videos that subvert expectations—he’s the man behind Justin Bieber’s “Yummy” and Troye Sivan’s “Easy”—Zeinali was a natural choice. Still, the partnership required trust. The pair set to work on the film while the album was still in progress, with Musgraves sharing snippets and ideas as they came to her. “There was no album when we first started talking, just voice memos and song files,” says Zeinali. “The intention wasn’t: ‘Let’s make a movie.’ We were speaking about things loosely, discussing references and what we liked. What made it such a fulfilling and rich experience was that she allowed me into her process, shared her thoughts and heart. That allowed me to understand where she was coming from and have the full context of what she’d been writing.”
In January their back-and-forth kicked into high gear after Musgraves had an illuminating therapy session. “It was a very spiritual experience,” she says. “A lot of imagery came to me after that session, and I rewatched Romeo + Juliet shortly after that and was newly inspired by the sentiment of the film. As I went back in the studio, all these ideas began to take shape.” The production design and costuming of Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film gave the Bard a glossy update, but Musgraves was as interested in the play itself. “I became obsessed with the meaning of the word tragedy,” she says. “Tragedy has been at the core of the most popular artwork and storytelling since the dawn of time, and it’s remained so popular because there is something cathartic in watching a character, feeling for them, then witnessing their downfall. Either you relate their tragedy to your life, or viewing allows you to forget your own.”
The three-act structure of tragedies became an organizing principle for the album and the film. “We’ve got 15 songs, so it worked out perfectly,” says Musgraves. “They were written chronologically as I was navigating through my healing journey. You can sense the trepidation, fear, and longing.”
Representing that onscreen meant selecting which songs would become full videos and which would serve as transitions, then deciding how each track, and subsequently Musgraves, would be represented. “I was thinking a lot about who Kacey is as an artist and what she represents,” says Zeinali. “When it comes to pop culture, she’s unique. She’s able to sit at this intersection and reach so many different types of people. Other fan bases can feel homogenous, but you see everyone in the world when you go to a Kacey concert. [So] we had to represent all the different sides of who she is.”
Accomplishing that meant multiple transformations. Musgraves morphs into a Moschino-clad bride for the title track, while “Simple Times” pays stylish homage to Versace’s supermodel-filled fall 1994 campaign. “Good Wife,” which features cameos from DJ-designer Harley Viera-Newton and musician Laura Love, uses custom shirtdresses from Newton’s label, HVN, to underscore its point on gender roles. “It was essential that we use female designers and smaller brands throughout,” says Cloud. “Being able to spotlight a label like Alison Lou, which is used in the “Simple Times” segment, and Darner socks, which is an incredible brand out of Los Angeles with a female founder, was so great. It connected so well with the music. Even having someone like Harley, who creates such beautiful, feminine dresses, not only contribute looks but also step in and do a cameo was incredible.”
The nod to classic Versace felt equally appropriate. “It’s such a memorable campaign,” says Cloud of the ads shot by Richard Avedon. “Kacey has that Stephanie Seymour, ’90s supermodel aura in those scenes, and the soft colors and shiny miniskirts complemented that. We reached out to Versace and re-created those looks using [Donatella’s] recent collections. The pastels and ankle socks seem sweet, but the scene itself was so rebellious, and we used custom crystal masks to show that shift.” The expressive looks Cloud dreamed up were precisely what Musgraves and Zeinali had been imagining. “[The costume design and beauty’s] versatility is wild when you think about it,” says Zeinali, who lived for the crystallized eyebrow moment and bombastic bridal dress inspired by “November Rain.” “But they felt true to her identity.”
Though she enjoyed switching from character to character, Musgraves felt right at home in the stripped-down look she wore for “Justified.” “In the middle of all the glam, we have a moment that’s just me in the car crying, singing, and laughing. I was as undone as I could be,” she says. “For me that was the rawest and most human moment, and to juxtapose it with all the fantasy was great. I love pushing things as much as possible, then figuring out if I need to dial it back.”